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Our third quarterly challenge for 2024 is to read nonfiction or fiction books written by women in translation from the language in which each book was originally published.

Our #WiT challenge starts 1 July and ends 30 September. We're not just reading women in translation in August, but giving ourselves a month on either side to enjoy and find new gems that qualify.

Let's use this thread to capture our plans, thoughts and conversations about our WiT reads. We encourage everyone to engage in this thread in order to have more conversations between members about the books we're reading and choosing; however, if it's important to you to set up and maintain a separate thread to capture your progress, feel free to set up your own tracking thread in this Quarterly Challenge folder.

If you're a reader who is trying to read around the world and want suggestions for certain languages or countries you're missing, bring your asks here.

If you plan to participate in this #WiT Challenge, let us know what you're thinking about reading, and share your reading experiences as the quarter unfolds.

Here's a link to the widget displayed on our landing page if you'd like to use it to track your qualifying reads:

/challenges/...

I also found this GR list which I hadn't seen before and which looks really good as a resource. Bonus: many members have voted, so you can see and consider their recs.
/list/show/4...

This is what I have got lined up for July and August, but planning on treating myself to a couple more for September.

The Story of a New Name
The Lying Life of Adults
All Our Yesterdays
Katalin Street
Flights

Currently super enjoying a long 1948 classic, Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, originally Italian and only very recently fully translated into English. An abridged English version that apparently really upset the author came out years ago under a different title.

I'm also planning on:

Family Ties by Clarice Lispector
شبيك لبيك Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed
The Years by Annie Ernaux

...and I guess this quarter is the time to try to squeeze in Isabel Allende and Sayaka Murata and Greek Lessons by Han Kang for that Bingo card!

Looks like I'll be hitting up a nice variety of continents! There are so many others I dream of squeezing in but these are my pretty definite ones...

I'm looking forward to reading Yoko Ogawa's new book Mina's Matchbox (Japan) as i love her writing. I also just heard about a Belgian dystopia I Who Have Never Known Men which sounds really intriguing.

There's a couple of new books I'd love to try but they're frustratingly not available in the UK including Alina Bronsky's new one Barbara Isn't Dying Yet (she's a favourite author of mine) and Stella nominated Hospital (set in Australia but translated from Bengali). I don't know how to find out if books are going to be released here or not?

Other than that I hope to get to at least one of the WIT books that have been on my tbr for years, perhaps Hurricane Season (Mexico) or Zuleikha (Russia)

Hannah wrote: "I'm looking forward to reading Yoko Ogawa's new book Mina's Matchbox (Japan) as i love her writing. I also just heard about a Belgian dystopia [book:I Who Have Never Known Men|1199..."

What a treat! I totally forgot that Mina's Matchbox has an August release date and I pre-ordered it months ago. Thanks for the great news, Hannah : )

I'm gleaning both new ideas and reminders from this thread already.

I have read 15 WiT books this year so far. I had a bunch of Nordic Noir on Audible that was from the free catalog that was leaving the free catalog, so I listened to a bunch!

I have The Door by Magda Szabó that I plan on reading pretty soon. I also have The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami, The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante, Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, and Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata. I'm not sure which ones I'll be reading during the challenge, but I will probably get a few of them in.

This has not been a strong year for WiT for me, so far, with only 2 read, so this Challenge has come along at the right time.

On my short list are:
Mina's Matchbox by Yōko Ogawa -- (that cover, though, what were they thinking? It's so bland and disappointing after the gorgeousness of the cover art for The Memory Police.

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki. Translated from Japanese by Polly Barton. I always trust Barton. Plus, in contrast to Mina's Matchbox, the cover is stunning.

Discretion by French author (born to Algerian parents), Faïza Guène. Translated by Sarah Ardizzone. Reading, The Art of Losing inspired me to find additional books exploring Algerian independence and the experience of Algerians who emigrated to France. A 4.29 rating and only 240 pages are two beautiful data points.

Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan. Translated by Alison Anderson.

Maybe I'll finally tackle Ferrante.

Hannah wrote: "I'm looking forward to reading Yoko Ogawa's new book Mina's Matchbox (Japan) as i love her writing. I also just heard about a Belgian dystopia I Who Have Never Known Men is published in the UK by Seagull Books London Ltd. and there are even used copies available at Amazon UK (yay!), and here's the Waterstone's link:



(Can you tell I don't want to be working on what I should be working on today?)

Thanks Carol!

Yes I sense some severe procrastinating going on here!

Agree about the Ogawa covers...eww... and I love my hardback memory police book. I'll be ebooking this new one (it's totally a word).

Discretion looks really good and it's available for free with a free trial of kobo unlimited, woohoo! As is Still Born another WIT which I've heard soooo many good things about. Think I'll finally be cashing in on that trial, I love my kobo

Reads in Q3:

1. The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod,
2. The Book of Proper Names by Amélie Nothomb
3. The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky
4. It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo
5. Umami by Laia Jufresa
6. The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada

by male author(s):
* A Land Without Jasmine by Wajdi Al-Ahdal

In August, Open Letter is offering 40% off all titles written by women authors OR translated by a woman translator.



Their website isn't the most intuitive to navigate, so here's a link to their new and forthcoming landing page, too.

The list of eligible titles for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation may be of interest here:

There is also a Listopia here on ŷ������ intended to mirror that list: /list/show/2...

David wrote: "The list of eligible titles for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation may be of interest here: ..."

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing these links, David. I hope you are doing well.

After reviewing CrazyTourist's 5 star reads, I'm adding Morning Sea by Italian author, Margaret Mazzantini, to my "planning to read" list. Available on Kindle for $5.99 in the US (at the moment). Also has the benefit (to me) of being only 144 pages.

Here's the GR synopsis:

From the multi-award-winning author of Twice Born comes this dazzling, emotionally charged tale of two mothers�� fight to protect their children’s futures

When the water is safer than the land...

As Gaddafi clings to power in Libya, Farid and his mother Jamila chance their luck on the hazardous crossing to Sicily. But as they hunker down in a trafficker’s battered old boat, the vastness of the Mediterranean begins to dawn. Meanwhile, in Sicily, Vito wanders the desolate beaches recalling his mother’s stories of her idyllic childhood in Libya. She has never forgotten �� nor forgiven �� the forces that tore her from her childhood love, a young Arab boy whose fate was very different from her own.

Moving back and forth between the continents, this deeply moving portrait focuses on two families and one stretch of water, and in terse, lyrical language, captures perfectly the dark, uncertain quality of our times.

I just listened to the audiobook of Cockroaches. Besides that, I'm planning to finish Æ��Բ���, which had to go back to the library earlier in the year before I could finish.

I'm in the middle of Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel. Other titles I have out from the library right now, and may manage to read for this challenge:

Igifu
My Heavenly Favorite
Antiquity

Also, I own Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, and take it out from time to time to read some of the poems. They are too dense for me to take in more than a few at a time, so I don't know that I could claim this for a challenge, but I'm thinking I need to spend a little time with it again, particularly in light of reading the Yoko Tawada novel.

Ok cool, those all sound interesting, G. Thanks for sharing.

G wrote: "I just listened to the audiobook of Cockroaches. Besides that, I'm planning to finish Æ��Բ���, which had to go back to the library earlier in the year before I could f..."

Hi G, what did you think of cockroaches? I tried our lady of the Nile some years ago but didn't think it was very good. I think it was the writing that put me off but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly. I'd like to give Scholastique Mukasonga another try. I noticed that her books with a different translator, Jordan Stump, are rated more highly.

Can anybody recommend whether to start with cockroaches or barefoot woman? Her autobiography vs her memoir of her mother?

Hannah wrote: "Can anybody recommend whether to start with cockroaches or barefoot woman? Her autobiography vs her memoir of her mother?."

Cockroaches is the only book of Mukasonga's that I have read so far, so I can't compare it to The Barefoot Woman. I think it may depend on what you are looking for. Cockroaches is about her growing up in the oppression and massacres perpetrated by the Hutu majority against Tutsi Rwandans. Roughly half the book is a fairly straightforward narration of a series of experiences she and her family had from her early childhood through her late teens, when she and one brother were finally sent into exile by their parents. The second half of the book is specifically about the 1994 genocide. I found it a powerful and moving book. It was emotionally difficult because of what she is describing, and I often had to put it down to collect myself. I started with it out of the works available in my library because I am particularly interested in the literature of witness: how do we narrate the account of unspeakable horror? The very act of putting such things into words has the effect of containing and flattening them, of making the unimaginable safe and manageable, and thus less than it actually is. How can we speak of these events without diminishing them, or numbing our audience, or dehumanizing the perpetrators? For me, this work succeeds very well. It is not written in literary language. It uses straightforward reporting. I found that very effective in this context, because it let me experience the emotion, without telling me what emotion I am supposed to be experience (which inherently distances the reader from the events).

Given that Mukasonga's mother (and father and all but one of Mukasonga's siblings, along with almost her nieces and nephews) was murdered in the genocide, and that her account of her parents in Cockroaches focussed on their efforts to ensure their family's survival--which included sending Mukasonga and her one brother into exile in their teens--I can't imagine a memoir of her mother that does not have the genocide at its center, but I don't (yet) know how she approaches the subject. I think she wrote this book as an effort to connect with a woman whom she had to leave in 1973, and only saw twice (if I counted right) more, and only briefly then.

Oh thanks for sharing, G- I love what you’re saying about literature of witness and what it should do.

I was at my local used book store a few days ago, and I found Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg. I was so excited to find it. I have read seven of her Fjallbacka mystery (Nordic Noir) series, and I loved them. I'm hoping to get to this one soon. I really enjoy her writing!

G wrote: "The very act of putting such things into words has the effect of containing and flattening them, of making the unimaginable safe and manageable, and thus less than it actually is. ..."

Thanks for your thoughts G, very insightful. I agree with what you said about the literature of witness. Your thoughts on emotion are very interesting as well, I will be pondering upon this some more. My initial reaction to someone writing about atrocious events without any emotion is that they would seem cold and distant but you've given me food for thought on an alternative way of looking at it

Just finished Human Acts by Han Kang - translated from Korean. I wrote about it in the 2024 Bingo thread. It is very good, but it is a hard read, and if you have trauma triggers, this may not be the book for you.

I just finished The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky, a translated work based in the Ukraine and France during the 1930's and published in 1940, just 2 years before the author perished in Auschwitz. It's not a complicated story, except to try to explain it. The pogroms were in full force in the Ukraine and the story highlights the difference in treatment between the poor Jews (the "wolves"), who lived below and the rich Jews (the "dogs"), who lived up on the hill, even within the same family tree. It's a love story (not romance), that although ill-fated, I felt a degree of hope in the young lady at the end.

I am a super-fan of this author, having read Suite Française a number of years ago, a book that sticks with me to this day. I can't honestly say if that is because of the story or because of her and her family's story. She does a wonderful job with her characters and, for some unknown reasons, her stories are so significant to me.

Gail W wrote: "I just finished The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky, a translated work based in the Ukraine and France during the 1930's and published in 1940, just 2 years be..."

I really enjoyed her work too - highly recommend reading her!

Thanks for the recommendation Gail. Just added it to my ever-growing TBR! LOL.

I've been on pause with Elsa Morante's Lies and Sorcery but I love it so far. I got more than halfway through... I just had a lot going on here and now I'm going on a big summer vacation by car. I want to read real books, not screens, while away, but more portable ones than the 800pg Morante... So I'll get back to her in a few weeks...

I did finish this month:
-Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (bingo square, audiobook)
-شبيك لبيك Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohammed (graphic novel)
-The Years by Annie Ernaux (group read)

And just quick responses to some mentions here-
Morante has got me really wanting to check out Ferrante too! And other Italians...
Alina Bronsky is high on my TBR too. Actually I just got Baba Dunja's Last Love in English for me and in German to gift to a language partner I will meet soon in Vienna. It's so short, maybe I'll be able to squeeze it in this busy quarter.

I’ve only read two books in translation this year, both group reads: The Art of Losing and The Years. A few of my upcoming WIT reads are ALSO group reads, haha, and I’ve just started How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa. Will also try squeezing in some bingo card/wit combos and I’ve got The Woman Destroyed on my nightstand, too. It’s looking to be a good quarter if I can get it done!

I finished The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated from Japanese) today, and while it was a little weird, it was also very sweet. They are literal food detectives who track down ingredients and dishes for their customers. It really explores the theme of food and nostalgia attached to memories. It was a lovely book.

I finished Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel.

It's the best read of my year to date.

/review/show...

Have plans to read 1-3 wit books for the Q3 Challenge
Not sure of my final choices but am considering:

1. The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun. Am not usually a fan of Japanese/Korean literature (tends to be too dark for my taste right now) but I am intrigued by the book's concept of "an Eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility."

2, And Miles To Go Before I Sleep translated by Rhonda Mullins and written by Jocelyne Saucier - an author I've read before and quite enjoy. Her stories are character-driven, well-written, quiet and moving.

3. I am interested in reading more by Isabel Allende and am looking at The Soul of a Woman, The Wind Knows My Name and Violeta The last 2 books are translated by Francis Riddle. The subject matters of all 3 books interest me and any of them could qualify for a bingo square in the 2024 2nd half Bingo.

4. Madame Victoria by Catherine Leroux was translated by Lazer Lederhendler. I look forward to this collection of short stories.

5. Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Salar translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones was a winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature and has been mentioned and recommend by many Read Women members.

After reading the first 35 pages I decided not to finish My Heavenly Favorite. I don't have the stomach for a novel about an older man stalking a young girl. It's the main reason I've never read Lolita. It's just not for me, at least not at the moment.

I'm setting my challenge at 10 and have read 5 titles so far, I'll update as I go.

France

It was good to read these two together, as one spans 60 years and the other a decade in France and both are viewed through the female gaze and the effect of the socio-political changes that impact those lives.

The Years by Annie Ernaux (France) - review - I thought this was excellent, but all the more for having read some of her other short works and her Nobel Prize winning speech which gives context to her writing career.

Daughters Beyond Command by Veronique Olmi (France) -review - a family of daughters growing up in 1970's Aix en Provence shrugging off tradition and expectations, a mother tries to cope, significant social changes boost their independence.

Argentina

January by Sara Gallardo (Argentina) - review
Time of the Flies by Claudia Pineiro (Argentina)

Tidal Waters by Velia Vidal (Colombia) - review - an epistolary novel that covers 3 years when a woman makes a significant life change, to move back to her roots and start a venture promoting reading and literacy to the community, absolutely loved it, clearly semi-autobiographical.

Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Giovanna Rivero (Bolivia) - review

Italy

The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)

Her Side of the Story by Alba de Cespedes (Italy)

I read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto translated from Japanese. It was actually two short stories, and I really enjoyed them both. The first one is kind of a love story but really just a human connection story. The second has a little paranormal twist to it, and I really liked it. Both stories have quite a bit of sadness in them, but they're also beautiful and loving.

I just finished The Postcard. It was deeply disappointing in some important respects, yet still worth reading.

Here's my review:
/review/show...

G wrote: "I just finished The Postcard. It was deeply disappointing in some important respects, yet still worth reading.

Here's my review:
/review/show..."

I loved The Postcard. It was a 5* read for me. I don't we had the same expectations, and it worked for me.

Recently finished How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa, a book of short stories. I personally really enjoyed it.

Misty wrote: "I read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto translated from Japanese. It was actually two short stories, and I really enjoyed them both. The first one is kind of a love story but..."

I really liked this one too. A lot of people didn’t like the second story, but I did. I went on a Banana Yoshimoto reading kick after this, but I think this was my favorite.

Anita wrote: "Recently finished How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa, a book of short stories. I personally really enjoyed it."

I totally agree Anita. I also really enjoyed this book. It won the significant Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada in 2020 as well as being mentioned favourably or selected by a number of U.S, fiction critics/publishers,

I found the book to very moving and a good reflection of immigrant experiences. The book would definitely qualify for Asian background (both content and author) but not for translation. Although the author was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, she moved with her parents to Canada at a young age where she was educated in English and therefore able to initially write her first book in English.

I've written a review but currently can't remember how to include a short link. My account is accessible if you're interested in following up.

Mj wrote: "Anita wrote: "Recently finished How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa, a book of short stories. I personally really enjoyed it."

I totally agre..."

Oh wow, I had gotten this off a list of translated works so didn’t even know that. Totally my fault for not being diligent. Thank you MJ. Still a great read though!

Anita wrote: "I really liked this one too. A lot of people didn’t like the second story, but I did. I went on a Banana Yoshimoto reading kick after this, but I think this was my favorite."

I also really liked the second story. Maybe the paranormal aspect threw people, but I have read over 70 Stephen King books, so maybe I'm just warped. LOL.

I read Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez. It is a collection of short, dark, creepy stories. I enjoyed them. If you're a SK fanatic like me, you'll probably dig them. LOL.

Hi Anita,

Hope you didn't think I was being the challenge police ). I wasn't and have caught myself choosing a book I "thought was translated to English in my case" but couldn't find a translator given credit on any of the editions. It's great with all the movement of people around the world but can certainly get confusing. On the plus side, it just makes reading choices wider and more diverse.

I was just excited that you had discovered and liked this author Souvankham Thammavongsa. Being a fellow Canadian, I wanted to give her a shut out on her debut novel. Previously, she had written and publishing poetry. I see my library has her third book of poetry Light in their collection that I might give a try.

Not at all, MJ! I really enjoyed this so will keep my eyes peeled for her poetry.

My copy of Yōko Ogawa's Mina's Matchbox arrived today. I might not be especially tuned in right now, but feel like it's gotten $0 marketing investment which annoys the heck out of me. I'll be taking it to the beach this weekend and am looking forward to it.

I just read Elena Knows. I did the audiobook, which does not yet have an entry on GR. My first Claudia Piñeiro, and wow, it was good.

Carol wrote: "My copy of Yōko Ogawa's Mina's Matchbox arrived today. I might not be especially tuned in right now, but feel like it's gotten $0 marketing investment which annoys t..."

Ooh, enjoy the book and the beach Carol!

I switched things up and read Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson . Translated from Swedish by Elizabeth Portch. This book was such a treat! Highly recommended, especially if you’re looking for a lighter entry to celebrate #WiT month.

I am feeling good about this challenge. I finished Mina’s Matchbox and am maybe 100 pages out from finishing Butter by Asako Yuzuki. Matchbox was far more conventional and without any disturbing or saddening content than I’d expected. Butter should have been 200 pages shorter, eg more focused and with more compelling pacing but even in its flawed state is fascinating. Also the audible narrator is fantastic.

Unlike our August-only WIT reading friends, we still have September ahead of us to continue finding and enjoying women in translation. What’s next on your challenge reading?

Carol wrote: "I am feeling good about this challenge. I finished Mina’s Matchbox and am maybe 100 pages out from finishing Butter by Asako Yuzuki. Matchbox was far more convent..."

I am finishing up Love in Case of Emergency, then plan to finish the print version of Igifu, having done the audiobook early in August. After that, I have several titles on my prospective list, and I haven't settled on which to read.

I finished The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and it was so bad. If I hadn't been reading it for the bingo and for #20BooksByLatinaAuthors, it would have been a DNF for sure. It was almost painful to read. I did not care about a single character in the book. It was not the worst book I have read all year, but it was close.